Libya rebels edge west at Misrata

Libyan rebels have been trying to push out from Misrata in the west

Libyan rebels say forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi have been launching attacks at a strategic border crossing with Tunisia.

Witnesses said pro-Gaddafi forces also fired rockets over the border.

Near Tripoli, Nato said it had hit several military targets, while an air strike was also reported near Col Gaddafi’s compound inside the capital.

Meanwhile, Canada has become the latest country to recognise Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC).

Correspondents say there has been a resurgence in fighting in Libya, following weeks of military stalemate.

Omar Hussein, a spokesman for rebels in the western Nafousa mountains, said Col Gaddafi’s forces were bombarding roads leading to the border crossing of Dahiba.

Rebels seized a number of towns in the area earlier this month, and Dahiba is a key supply route for them.

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that pro-Gaddafi forces had fired Grad rockets over the border into Tunisia.

In the western, rebel-held city of Misrata, rockets damaged generators at an oil refinery near the port, disrupting fuel supply lines, Reuters reported.

Nato said it had carried out strikes in Misrata late on Monday, and had struck targets including a rocket launcher and an armoured vehicle mounted with anti-aircraft guns east of Tripoli on Tuesday.

Rebels were said to be advancing towards Zlitan, just west of Misrata.

On the eastern front, a rebel commander told AFP news agency that 21 rebel fighters had been killed in clashes on Monday.

Inside the capital, a column of smoke rose from near Col Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound, though it was not clear exactly what had been targeted.

Nato has frequently pounded the area in and around the sprawling compound.

The latest strikes came amid concerns about the length of the Nato’s mission in Libya.

Gen Stephane Abrial, a senior Nato official, said coalition resources would become “critical” if the operation in Libya continues.

And on Monday the head of the British Navy, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, said on Monday that priorities must change if the mission exceeds six months.

Col Gaddafi and Kirsan Ilyumzhino played chess on Sunday

But the head of the British armed forces, General Sir David Richards, told the BBC: “We can sustain this operation as long as we choose to”.

Nato took over the Libyan mission on 31 March.

South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, said the UN resolution that authorised the use of force to protect civilians in March was being abused for “regime change, political assassinations and foreign military occupation”.

On Tuesday Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian head of the World Chess Federation, said Col Gaddafi had told him that he was ready to hold talks if Nato stopped its air strikes, but dismissed international efforts to get him to stand down.

The two played a game of chess in Tripoli on Sunday.

“I will not go anywhere, my relatives died here and I will also die in that land,” Mr Ilyumzhinov quoted the Libyan leader as saying.

Libya condemned a visit by the German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, to Benghazi, calling it a “blatant violation of national sovereignty and… international laws”.

Canada and Germany are the latest countries to recognised the NTC, which is based in the eastern city, as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

“We share the same goal – Libya without Gaddafi,” Mr Westerwelle said.

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